Reference Sites are sites used for the delivery of X-pos products to customers. They are the key to access X-pos services: who needs to download RINEX files from SBC User portal or needs reference data to compute accurate coordinates for their rovers can rely on the X-pos repository, filled with data coming from Reference Sites.
For further information on X-pos Architecture and components and on the Connection to the X-pos server , please read the corresponding sections of the X-pos - General help page. This section of SBC online help focuses on the synchronization of Reference Sites between Leica Spider and SBC.
If the connection to the X-pos server is successful, all Reference Sites configured on the Spider Site Server are synchronized with SBC.
Once the synchronization has happened, all relevant site properties are available in SBC. They are listed in Settings > X-pos > Reference Sites. The list is automatically updated according to any change of site properties performed on the Spider Site Server. Column “Last Update” is indicating this. It provides the last time when information on the X-pos server was updated by Spider. The site marker name and number, its Geodetic and Cartesian coordinates, the receiver model and antenna type installed are displayed, together with the tracked constellations, the minimum required elevation mask and the logging data rate set on the receiver.
The “Registration” column of the table contains an icon representing a chain: this indicates whether the site is activated for X-pos or not. If the synchronization happened once for a site whose X-pos option has been disabled afterwards, then this site will be marked as “Inactive” (red chain icon). All sites with the X-pos option enabled will, instead, have the green icon.
In general, there is no continuous connection between Site Server and X-pos Server. Instead, the Site Server communicates “on demand” to the X-pos Server via API. When relevant changes to a site’s configuration is made on the Site Server, it triggers the synchronization, such as:
Also, an “Antenna” column is available, containing an antenna icon: sites whose antenna parameters are known are marked with the green antenna indicator; sites whose antenna is not supported by X-pos show a red icon, instead. For clarifications on the antenna management, please read the Antenna verification for X-pos reference sites of the X-pos Coordinate Computation section of this help.
The “Published” checkbox available for each reference site, if flagged, makes the corresponding site available for RINEX Data requests in SBC User portal; otherwise, the site will not be usable for RINEX files delivery and therefore not visible in the RINEX Data map.
The Post-Processing > RINEX Data page of the SBC User Portal allows users to download RINEX files for a specified period of time. RINEX files are provided by the X-pos Reference Sites.
Only users with a suitable subscription can benefit from the RINEX Data Request service. According to the properties of the subscribed article, a limitation to the usage of the RINEX Data service might be in place; said limitation would be expressed in Epochs. Please note that the RINEX Data option is only visible on SBC User portal if the Enable RINEX Download Service checkbox is flagged in the Settings > X-pos > General page of the Admin portal, SBC related settings section.
Users have the chance to give a project name to each RINEX request. This is not mandatory.
From the RINEX Data page of SBC user portal, users can select the desired start date and duration, as well as the reference station(s) for which they want to have RINEX files. When they trigger a RINEX request, files are taken from the X-pos data repository, hence they all come from the synchronized X-pos reference sites. As mentioned in the X-pos Data Repository and Settings section of this help, the location where X-pos RINEX data is stored is defined by the Root Path of X-pos Data Repository.
Only Reference Sites marked as “Published” by administrators (Settings > X-pos > Reference Sites page of the SBC Admin portal) can be used for RINEX Data request by users: these will be displayed in the RINEX Data page of the User portal, both in the map and in the site list on the right.
Original X-pos file products stored in the X-pos data Repository have the following default characteristics:
When triggering a RINEX Data Request, it is possible to request the merging and/or decimation of the output files. If merging is selected, only one file per site will be delivered as result of the RINEX Data request, and its length will be equal to the user-selected duration. If decimation is selected, output RINEX files will have an observation rate slower than 1 second: user can choose between 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 or 60 seconds observation rates. Every time an observation rate different than 1 second is selected, the merging is automatically enabled and can't be disabled. In other words, the only case where user can request non-merged files is when they request 1 second observation rate.
Merging or changing the observation rate of the input files will lead to load on the X-pos Server machine. A new product named RINEX Data Access (Basic) has been introduced. When any user has a subscription to the product RINEX Data Access (Basic), the Merge files option and observation rate dropdown will not be displayed to the user on RINEX Data Request page and the user will only be allowed to perform non-concatenated RINEX based requests and will be able to download the request.
The Post Processing > Results page of SBC User portal contains, in the RINEX Data Results tab, a list of all the Requests triggered by the user. It is possible to download RINEX files corresponding to all requests not older than 5 days, either altogether or one by one; for data older than 5 days, it is possible, instead, to submit again a new request with the same settings.
The Results page also contains Coordinate Computation Results. Please see the Coordinate computation results section in the X-pos: Coordinate Computation page of this help for more information about it.